China Chronicles December 29, 2012
- Chris & Jojo at the Botanical Garden
Peng.Cheng has added a photo to the pool:
- civilian worker's life,Jiangsu China
- civilian worker's life,Jiangsu China
- civilian worker's life,Jiangsu China
- Jojo and Chris
Peng.Cheng has added a photo to the pool:
- 10 killed in packed van plunge
AT least 10 people, including five children, died when an overloaded van crashed down a mountain ravine in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region yesterday morning.
There were 20 people on board the nine-seater van when it plunged more than 50 meters at about 6am. It was traveling from the regional capital, Nanning, to Dahua Yao Autonomous County, Xinhua news agency said.
Eight people died at the scene, one on the way to hospital and another despite emergency treatment at the Duyang Town Central Clinic.
The nine injured have been transferred to the county's People's Hospital. One is a two-month-old baby who is in a critical condition and suffering from bleeding in the brain, China Central Television reported.
Another injured person will be transferred when he is in a stable condition, CCTV reported.
The baby's mother, 24-year-old Wei Yuefang, said she and her family were heading for their home village of Bahaotun in Qibainong Township to attend a wedding, according to Xinhua.
She said that her daughter was sleeping in her arms when the minivan toppled over the side of the road. They were thrown from the vehicle as it fell, Wei said.
"Passengers who were still conscious shouted for help. Nearby villagers came and saved us," Wei said.
Survivors told CCTV that it had been raining in the region for several days.
The road was wet and there was thick fog at the time.
An initial investigation said the casualties were workers from a wood processing factory in Nanning and their children. The minivan belonged to the factory owner, according to China News Service, which said that most of the people onboard were from five families.
- 10 killed in packed van plunge
AT least 10 people, including five children, died when an overloaded van crashed down a mountain ravine in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region yesterday morning.
There were 20 people on board the nine-seater van when it plunged more than 50 meters at about 6am. It was traveling from the regional capital, Nanning, to Dahua Yao Autonomous County, Xinhua news agency said.
Eight people died at the scene, one on the way to hospital and another despite emergency treatment at the Duyang Town Central Clinic.
The nine injured have been transferred to the county's People's Hospital. One is a two-month-old baby who is in a critical condition and suffering from bleeding in the brain, China Central Television reported.
Another injured person will be transferred when he is in a stable condition, CCTV reported.
The baby's mother, 24-year-old Wei Yuefang, said she and her family were heading for their home village of Bahaotun in Qibainong Township to attend a wedding, according to Xinhua.
She said that her daughter was sleeping in her arms when the minivan toppled over the side of the road. They were thrown from the vehicle as it fell, Wei said.
"Passengers who were still conscious shouted for help. Nearby villagers came and saved us," Wei said.
Survivors told CCTV that it had been raining in the region for several days.
The road was wet and there was thick fog at the time.
An initial investigation said the casualties were workers from a wood processing factory in Nanning and their children. The minivan belonged to the factory owner, according to China News Service, which said that most of the people onboard were from five families.
- 2 pupils die in school restroom collapse
TWO children died and two others were injured after an outdoor restroom collapsed in a primary school in south China's Guangdong Province yesterday.
Officials in Guangdong's Luoding City said the accident happened at around 8:10am at the school.
Four children were injured when a wall of the restroom collapsed. Two of them died in hospital, while the other two are in a stable condition.
Local authorities are investigating and the city has ordered safety inspections for its middle and primary schools.
China has seen a string of incidents in recent months in which children have been killed or injured in school bus crashes, violent attacks and child abuse cases. Experts say the tragedies, which often occurred in rural schools, have exposed a lack of government supervision.
On Monday, 11 preschoolers died after the school van they were in plunged into a roadside pond in a rural area of Jiangxi Province.
The privately run kindergarten they attended was found to have been operating without a license for eight years.
On December 15, a man stormed into a village primary school and slashed 23 pupils with a knife in the central Henan Province. Surveillance footage showed the school was poorly guarded at the time.
- 2 pupils die in school restroom collapse
TWO children died and two others were injured after an outdoor restroom collapsed in a primary school in south China's Guangdong Province yesterday.
Officials in Guangdong's Luoding City said the accident happened at around 8:10am at the school.
Four children were injured when a wall of the restroom collapsed. Two of them died in hospital, while the other two are in a stable condition.
Local authorities are investigating and the city has ordered safety inspections for its middle and primary schools.
China has seen a string of incidents in recent months in which children have been killed or injured in school bus crashes, violent attacks and child abuse cases. Experts say the tragedies, which often occurred in rural schools, have exposed a lack of government supervision.
On Monday, 11 preschoolers died after the school van they were in plunged into a roadside pond in a rural area of Jiangxi Province.
The privately run kindergarten they attended was found to have been operating without a license for eight years.
On December 15, a man stormed into a village primary school and slashed 23 pupils with a knife in the central Henan Province. Surveillance footage showed the school was poorly guarded at the time.
- Student games lost 12.8b yuan, figures say
THE largest-ever World University Games held last year in the southern city of Shenzhen caused a huge loss of 12.78 billion yuan (US$2.05 billion), figures showed.
The games brought in income of 1.217 billion yuan (US$195 million) from ticket sales and other promotional considerations, but the games' expenses were 13.996 billion yuan, according to a report released by the city's audit office.
The 26th Summer Universiade was held between August 12 and 23, 2011.
The games are an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation.
The audit report showed the sports event went dramatically over budget mainly because some of the projects exceeded their budget, some made purchases that were unauthorized or in violation of rules, and some didn't have budgets.
Organizers spent 4.49 billion yuan on operating the games, including the opening and closing ceremony; 7.52 billion yuan on building and renovating venues; and 1.986 billion yuan on other support facilities, the audit showed.
The Shenzhen audit office also found donations from some sponsors were poorly arranged, and some resources, such as oil for sailing ships and bullets for competitions, were wasted.
Involved personnel would be investigated and would be punished if wrongdoing was uncovered in the process, according to the audit office.
The report was published almost 11 months later after some local political advisers and local legislators demanded a full disclosure of spending following media reports of big outlays and unpaid debts.
The Shenzhen audit office said they have started auditing the related expenditure on January 2008 and finished this September, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.
"We sent 222 teams auditing 239 units, 61 construction projects and 26 supporting programs. It takes a long time to work out the figures," the office said in response to why it took so long to publish the report, according to th! e paper.
Liang Daohang, former vice mayor of the city, was said to be toppled for his connection with unclear accounts in the Universiade, according to The Beijing News.
The Guangdong Province Party discipline watchdog on December 1 confirmed Liang was under the investigation for severe violations, but didn't disclose more details, according to its official website.
- Student games lost 12.8b yuan, figures say
THE largest-ever World University Games held last year in the southern city of Shenzhen caused a huge loss of 12.78 billion yuan (US$2.05 billion), figures showed.
The games brought in income of 1.217 billion yuan (US$195 million) from ticket sales and other promotional considerations, but the games' expenses were 13.996 billion yuan, according to a report released by the city's audit office.
The 26th Summer Universiade was held between August 12 and 23, 2011.
The games are an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation.
The audit report showed the sports event went dramatically over budget mainly because some of the projects exceeded their budget, some made purchases that were unauthorized or in violation of rules, and some didn't have budgets.
Organizers spent 4.49 billion yuan on operating the games, including the opening and closing ceremony; 7.52 billion yuan on building and renovating venues; and 1.986 billion yuan on other support facilities, the audit showed.
The Shenzhen audit office also found donations from some sponsors were poorly arranged, and some resources, such as oil for sailing ships and bullets for competitions, were wasted.
Involved personnel would be investigated and would be punished if wrongdoing was uncovered in the process, according to the audit office.
The report was published almost 11 months later after some local political advisers and local legislators demanded a full disclosure of spending following media reports of big outlays and unpaid debts.
The Shenzhen audit office said they have started auditing the related expenditure on January 2008 and finished this September, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.
"We sent 222 teams auditing 239 units, 61 construction projects and 26 supporting programs. It takes a long time to work out the figures," the office said in response to why it took so long to publish the report, according to th! e paper.
Liang Daohang, former vice mayor of the city, was said to be toppled for his connection with unclear accounts in the Universiade, according to The Beijing News.
The Guangdong Province Party discipline watchdog on December 1 confirmed Liang was under the investigation for severe violations, but didn't disclose more details, according to its official website.
- Student hacker uncovers exams, brags about skill
A COMPUTER wizard studying at Nanjing University may be punished for using a social networking website to flaunt how he hacked the school's e-mail account and found the final exam papers, local media reported.
The 21-year-old bragged on Wednesday on popular social networking website renren.com that he hacked into the academic dean's e-mail account, the Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
In his post, Liu said he found out that teachers sent the electronic exam sheets to the dean by e-mail, so he sent an e-mail and soon received a reply. He also received a "session cookie," a unique string that contains the path of an automatic login generated when a user logs into his account.
He then used the stolen cookie to log onto the dean's account without providing a user name or password.
"I searched 13 exam sheets but I didn't click any one," Liu said, adding that he just found the bug and wanted to test it. He also said students could use the same method to change bad scores.
His post was widely circulated on the Internet and many students asked him to teach them. But he deleted it on Thursday morning at the order of his instructor.
His father also received a call from the school, saying his son might be expelled, the paper reported. But the school told the newspaper that it hasn't decided how to punish the student.
Liu has apologized, saying he was sorry for posing negative influences, but he insisted the school should improve its computer system.
- Student hacker uncovers exams, brags about skill
A COMPUTER wizard studying at Nanjing University may be punished for using a social networking website to flaunt how he hacked the school's e-mail account and found the final exam papers, local media reported.
The 21-year-old bragged on Wednesday on popular social networking website renren.com that he hacked into the academic dean's e-mail account, the Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
In his post, Liu said he found out that teachers sent the electronic exam sheets to the dean by e-mail, so he sent an e-mail and soon received a reply. He also received a "session cookie," a unique string that contains the path of an automatic login generated when a user logs into his account.
He then used the stolen cookie to log onto the dean's account without providing a user name or password.
"I searched 13 exam sheets but I didn't click any one," Liu said, adding that he just found the bug and wanted to test it. He also said students could use the same method to change bad scores.
His post was widely circulated on the Internet and many students asked him to teach them. But he deleted it on Thursday morning at the order of his instructor.
His father also received a call from the school, saying his son might be expelled, the paper reported. But the school told the newspaper that it hasn't decided how to punish the student.
Liu has apologized, saying he was sorry for posing negative influences, but he insisted the school should improve its computer system.
- China approves real-name regulation for the Internet
CHINA'S lawmakers have given the green light to rules requiring Internet users to register their real names with service providers.
The rules also specify punishments for websites or service providers who leak or sell personal information.
The rules, adopted yesterday at the closing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in Beijing, are meant to "ensure Internet information security, safeguard the lawful rights and interests of citizens, legal entities or other organizations and safeguard national security and social public interests."
The identity management policy will require Internet users to use their real names to identify themselves to service providers.
It bans organizations and individuals from obtaining personal information via illegal means, as well as prohibiting them from selling or illegally providing the information to others. Violations can lead to confiscation of illegal gains, the loss of licenses and website closures, as well as a ban on any future Internet-related business.
"Network service providers will ask users to provide genuine identification information when signing agreements to grant them access to the Internet, fixed-line telephone or mobile devices or to allow users to post information publicly," the decision states.
A senior member of the legislature allayed public concern that the rules could hamper the exposure of corruption cases online, stifle public criticism and negate the Internet's supervisory role.
Such worries are "unnecessary," said Li Fei, deputy director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee.
Earlier this week, when briefing lawmakers on the decision, Li said: "Identity management work can be conducted backstage, allowing users to use different names when posting material publicly."
Many Internet and telecommunications operators have already put identity management into practice in China. The new decision aims to improve the policy thro! ugh legislation, according to Li.
By November, almost all fixed-line phone users and 70 percent of mobile phone users have registered with their real names.
Unregistered users are mainly owners of prepaid mobile phone cards, figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show.
The new rules will empower supervisory departments to take technical and other necessary measures to prevent, stop or punish those who infringe on online privacy.
People who find information that discloses their identity or infringes their rights, as well as those who suffer harassment from promotional messages, have the right to demand providers stop such practices.
The decision bans service providers, as well as government agencies and their personnel, from leaking users' information, as well as from selling or illegally providing it to others.
Network service providers are also responsible for taking measures to ensure the safety of information during business activities and adopt countermeasures when information is leaked, damaged or lost, it says.
To tackle the rising number of complaints regarding spam messages, the decision bans any organization and individuals from sending commercial digital information to fixed-line phones, mobile phones or personal e-mail addresses without consent.
- Ctrip travel agency stole clients on web, suit says
CTRIP, the country's leading online travel agency, is accused in a lawsuit of using the link promotion service of China's largest search engine to steal customers and cause severe losses to a Guangdong-based ticket agent.
Dongguan Guo'an Ticket Co. Ltd is seeking 5 million yuan (US$801,835) in compensation from Ctrip for alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition, the Shanghai No. 1Intermediate People's Court heard yesterday.
Guo'an said it found the first search result of "Guo'an ticket" on a search on baidu.com directed Internet users to ctrip.com when clicked in July. Guo'an blamed the link for its declining online sales.
"It was an infringement action for Ctrip to use our company name in its promoted links. The action was also an unfair means of competition that cost Guo'an nearly 6 million yuan in losses," said Liu Yaya, a lawyer representing Guo'an.
Liu said Guo'an is the trademark holder of its company name until at least 2017. Liu said Ctrip infringed both the trademark rights and the company's naming rights.
According to Liu, Ctrip created the infringing promotion link on September 21, 2011 to lure online customers to book air tickets and travel packages on Ctrip's website. The link was not deleted until November 29 of this year, the court heard.
Ctrip denied the accusation.
Guo'an said the compensation was based on a daily average margin of its sales income before and after the link was deleted. Guo'an said it is willing to mediate but Ctrip refused. The court didn't make a ruling yesterday.
- Law boost for contract workers
CHINA has amended its labor law to ensure workers hired through contracting agents are offered the same conditions as full employees, a move meant to tighten a loophole used by many employers to maintain flexible staffing.
Contracting agencies have taken off since China implemented the Labor Contract Law in 2008, which stipulates employers must pay workers' health insurance and social security benefits and makes firing very difficult.
"Hiring via labor contracting agents should be arranged only for temporary, supplementary and backup jobs," the amendment reads. It takes effect on July 1 next year.
Contracted laborers now make up about a third of the workforce at many Chinese and multinational factories, and in some cases account for well over half.
Some foreign representative offices, all news bureaus and most embassies are required to hire Chinese staff through employment agencies, rather than directly.
Under the amendment, "temporary" refers to durations of under six months, while supplementary workers would replace staff on maternity leave or on holiday, Kan Ke, vice chairman of the legislative affairs commission of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, told reporters.
The main point is that contracting through agencies should not become the main channel for employment, he said, acknowledging that the definition of backup might differ by industry.
"In order to prevent abuse, the regulations control the total numbers and the proportion of workers that can be contracted through agencies and companies cannot expand either number or proportion at whim," Kan said. "The majority of workers at a company should be under regular labor contracts."
Although in theory contracted or dispatch workers are paid the same, with benefits supplied by the agencies who are legally their direct employers, in practice many contracted workers, especially in manufacturing industries and state-owned enterprises, do not enjoy benefits and are paid less.
E! mployment agencies have been set up by local governments and even by companies themselves to keep an arms-length relationship with workers. Workers who are underpaid, fired or suffer injury often find it very difficult to pursue compensation through agencies.
China would increase inspections for violations, Kan said, including the practice of chopping a longer contract into several shorter ones to maintain the appearance of "temporary" work.
- Law covers parental visits
VISIT your parents ... and that's an order.
Lawmakers yesterday amended the law on the elderly to require adult children to visit aged parents "often" - or risk being sued by them.
The amendment does not specify the frequency of visits but earlier news reports said the new clause will allow elderly parents who feel neglected by their children to take them to court.
- Police hunt suspects in toilet porn case
POLICE are hunting suspects who took photographs and filmed video footage in women's toilets at a university using hidden cameras.
The material was found on foreign pornographic websites, according to yesterday's Legal Evening News.
The university wasn't named but police said many students featured in the photographs and they had been shocked to find out they had been photographed. A number of the students were now too afraid to use the university's toilets, police told reporters in Beijing.
During their investigation, police found suspects communicating via online chatting software and trading photographs and videos. On one chat service, suspects were sharing their experience of taking photographs with hidden cameras and "showing off their achievements at toilets," police said.
The suspects, who hid their identities, frequently joined different online chat rooms and freely shared experiences and photographs.
Spreading the photographs and videos online was a serious violation of the victims' rights, police said, adding that their investigation was continuing.
The case surfaced after an online post under the heading "Caution Girls" claimed in May that hidden cameras had been used to secretly record women in toilet booths.
The post said photos and footage taken from the toilets were then sold to Japan and featured in adult movies. Women in the videos seemed unaware they were being filmed, the post said.
There was concern in Shanghai after the poster claimed that women featured in some of the clips spoke Shanghai dialect, and the pictures might have been taken at Shanghai's Metro City, a shopping mall in downtown Xujiahui area.
Police checked the mall's toilets but found nothing.
In other cases, more than 500 people suspected of involvement in major pornographic websites had been detained.
About 100 of the suspects were caught at the beginning of the year in a case involving a website in Hebei Province which had more than 230,0! 00 registered members and 12,000 hits a day.
In March, police arrested about 400 people in a case involving porn website "Adult Video Wolf" which had more than a million members.
- March date for congress
CHINA has decided to convene the first plenary session of the 12th National People's Congress on March 5 next year, during which top state leaders including the country's president will be elected.
The 30th meeting of the 11th NPC Standing Committee, which ended yesterday, passed a decision which sets suggestions for the agenda of the session, which will last about two weeks.
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